Storytelling in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction

This workshop will focus on how to tell a good story—whether in fiction or creative nonfiction. The process will help writers tap into their own experiences to create, shape and revise stories for a wider audience. In-class writing exercises and visualizations will jump start or enhance works-in-progress that may include the short story, personal essay, novel or memoir. Students also will explore the importance of detail, humor, perspective, character, dialogue, and place in both fiction and nonfiction, while also examining the substance of the story within a larger context. We will read selections from a range of authors, including Fannie Flagg, Richard Wright, Audre Lorde, Alfred Kazin, E.L. Doctorow, Toni Morrison, John Edgar Wideman, Anne Lamott and others. Students will be asked to maintain daily writing journals, participate in and lead workshop discussions, contribute to peer review, and write and revise stories on a weekly basis.